These articles from Manufacturer and Builder Magazine were
published in the 1870s. Photo scans of the articles are available from
Making of America at Cornell University.
Uncorrected text scans are available from the
Library of Congress'
American Memory site. I did some cleanup of the text scans. I made
a few editorial comments in italics with my initials.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 9, Issue 4,
May 1875

Under the name of dummy locomotives are understood
such as are surrounded by a casing so as to hide
the boiler and the greater part of the machinery. The
finest engines of this class are now being built by the
well-known engineering firm of Messrs. Hampson,
Whitehill & Co., of 88 Cortlandt street, New York, for
the New York Elevated Railroad, running through
Greenwich street and Ninth avenue, over which each
of these engines draws two or three comfortable cars,
giving the best of accommodation to the passengers.

The chief problem in the design of these engines was
to make them as powerful as possible for their small
size and weight, and that this problem was solved is
evident from the successful experience with several of
them built by the company at their own works, and
which have thus far done satisfactory duty.

While we write, travel on the road is closed, for the
introduction of valuable improvements: the gauge,
which was 4 feet 10 inches, is being changed to the
regular gauge of the New York street-cars -- 4 feet 8 1/2
inches, so that its trains may run on the ordinary street
rails, or inversely, ordinary street-cars may be transported
over this road. This is accomplished by placing wooden
cross-ties over the existing old rails and
laying new steel rails on top of these, fixed to them
with spikes in the usual way. At the same time, additional
trusses and wrought-iron columns add to the
strength and stability of the structure. At first the
rails were immovably fixed to the cross-ties on top of the columns, and
the least settling of the foundations of the latter threw the rails
out of line, so that the track soon became zigzag,
and the cars subject to so much oscillation as
to make it dangerous, notwithstanding the extra wide
flange adopted. This however was soon corrected by making the rails
adjustable on the columns; but the main trouble by which the first
management lost considerable money, (and probably
the cause of the breaking of the company financially,)
were the costly experimental contrivances intended
for the propulsion of the trains. They consisted
in an endless wire rope of about a mile long, and of
which one-half moved over pulleys between the rails,
while the returning half moved through a small tunnel
underground, along the base of the columns. This
however was soon abandoned as utterly impracticable,
and both portions of the rope were made to pass between
the track, while at the end of each section it
passed through one of the hollow columns underground
in the celler (sic - JT) of one of the adjoining buildings, which
had been hired to place the stationary engine in, the
engineer of which started it at a given signal when a
train approached his section. As there were several
such stationary engines placed from distance to distance,
each requiring attendants, the wastefulness of
this plan is evident, and it is surprising that this was
not seen at the outset, before this great expense was
indulged in. Experience soon showed another very objectionable
feature, namely, when a train passed from
one section to another, the pull of the wire rope, when
this moved faster than the train, often caused such a
jerk at the moment it became attached, as to throw the
passengers from their seats. We ourselves experienced
this on a trial trip to which the editors of the various
New York papers were invited, and as the seats are
placed lengthwise, the whole editorial corps were
thrown in a heap to the rear end of the car. However
no one was injured.

Is it any wonder that a number of capitalists, employing
advisers who indulged in the execution of such
visionary schemes, at last broke down, and saw the
road pass out of their hands and into such as had the
common sense to employ solid engineering talent?
The latter have now made the Greenwich street elevated
railroad a success, which is chiefly due to the
abandonment of new schemes and the adoption of the
system tested by the experience of years -- the simple
locomotive pulling a train of cars. The only question
was to make one which would answer the purposes and
adapted to the peculiar condition of the case.

It is due to the ingenuity of Mr. D. W. Wyman, superintendent
of the road, to have designed a successful
one, of which we give a sectional view on the opposite
page. In the design he has displayed great ingenuity
combined with professional knowledge. Their established
success has made all other plans or devices for
propulsion utterly useless, and they therefore have
been definitely abandoned. A number of new engines
of the same class have now been contracted for with
Messrs. Hampson, Whitehill & Co., as above stated,
and as soon as finished and the road is ready to receive
them, they will be placed on the improved road, over
which, by reason of additional accommodations in
switching, etc., the trains will run twice as often as at
present.

The main feature in their mechanical construction is
a similarity to an engine with six coupled wheels, of
which the middle one possesses the crank and is driven
by the piston-rod, only that here this wheel is omitted,
while axle and crank are retained, possessing the eccentrics
and everything except the wheel, while the
locomotive stands on the four wheels coupled to this
crank and axle. The cylinders, which are 7 inches diameter
by 10 inches stroke, are placed inside of the
wheels, and just in front of the forward axle, and are
so inclined as to raise them high enough for the guides
to clear the axle of the forward wheels. The wheels
are 23 inches diameter, and are all drivers; the boiler
is 36 inches diameter, and has one hundred and forty-
two 1 1/4-inch tubes; the entire length over all, including
the cab, is 11 feet 6 inches.

Steam is taken from a valve placed on top of the
dome, from which a pipe passes forward to a throttle-
valve placed over the front end of the boiler. From
this a steam-pipe passes down each side of the boiler
to the steam-chests, which are on top of the cylinders.
The valve-motion is of the ordinary shifting-link type.
The exhaust-pipe has two branches, one leading into
the smoke-stack directly, the other passing through the
tank and then upwards through the roof of the cab. A
small saddle-tank is placed over the barrel of the boiler.
The frames are bar-frames like ordinary engine
frames, and are well braced together. The whole engine
is covered over with a cab or housing, provided
with windows all round, and a door at each side of the
foot-plate.

These engines weigh about 8,000 pounds, ready for
work; their ordinary train consists of two passenger
cars weighing 11,000 pounds each, and each capable of
seating forty-eight passengers; but three cars are frequently
hauled. The length of the road is very nearly
four miles; in that distance there are seven stops, and
the run is made in twenty minutes. A day's work is
about ten round trips, or eighty-two miles.

One curious test of the simplicity and good workmanship
of an engine is found in the small amount of
lubricating material needed. It is evident that a complicated
machine, or one badly built, needs extra greasing
to make it work; but when we state the fact that
each of these engines can run six days, or nearly 500
miles on one single gallon of lubricating oil, it puts
their excellence in a clear light. In regard to the consumption
of coal, this was found, by conscientious
measurement, to he 6 pounds per mile run, deduced
from the fact that every ton of anthracite coal was sufficient
to run the trains 333 miles.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 9, Issue 4,
April 1877

The problem of using steam as a motor on street railways seems likely to
be solved in Philadelphia, the first city in the country to introduce
horse-cars. Mr. John S. Morton, of the West Philadelphia Passenger Railway
Company (Market street line), has for many months been making experiments
with a view to superseding horse power with steam; but, though a number of
steam-cars of different patents were successively tried, none were
pronounced satisfactory. However, seven more steam-cars, six manufactured in
Troy, N. Y., and one in Philadelphia at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, were
placed on the road, and in a trial trip, participated in by the officers of
various street-railway companies, a number of business men and
members of the press, it was found that so nearly perfect had the steam
vehicles been made that very little improvement could possibly be suggested.

No difficulty was experienced in any part of the route except when
ascending the heavy grades near the Market street bridge. Here one or two of
the Troy cars were stopped for a few moments by the muddy condition of the
track, but it was explained that this would not have happened had not the
sand carried been carelessly placed in the box without sifting, thus
clogging up one sand-pipe. This omission was rectified, and the cars
mounted the grade with ease.

It was noticed during the trip that the engines were perfectly noiseless,
and but little steam escaped, most of this amount coming out beneath the
body of the car. The boiler, which is very small, is placed in front of the
car, and encased with walnut. The machinery is very compact, and the parts
are so arranged that the entire power of the engine can be concentrated on
the
brakes. This places the car under such complete control that while going at
a high rate of speed it can be stopped much quicker than the ordinary
horse-car. It was frequently remarked during the trip that the most high
spirited horses were not in the least affected by the new steam cars, and
that with few exceptions the only animals frightened were cart and dray
horses, that no one would suppose could be startled by anything short of a
cannonade or an earthquake. None of these
animals became unmanageable, and before the seven cars had passed quieted
down to their normal plodding condition.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 9, Issue 7,
July 1877

The steam street cars in Paris are reported to be unqualifiedly
successful, although they run along the grandest boulevard in the city,
and through some of the busiest streets, turning sharp angles and climbing
and descending perceptible grades. The engines draw crowded cars from the
Arc de Triomphe to the Bastile, a distance of seven miles, at a speed of
eight miles an hour, and no one has yet been hurt, nor are horses
frightened by the sight of the engines. The latter are like the dummies on
Market street, Philadelphia, noiseless and smokeless, and steam-power is
said to have proved much more economical than horse-power.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 10, Issue 3,
March 1878

The Gilbert Elevated Railroad Company have just
closed a contract for the construction of fifteen elegant
iron depot buildings, to be built immediately on the
line of their track from the Battery to Central Park.
A large quantity of ornamental work is involved, as
appears from an examination of the architectural plans.
The total contract price exceeds $200, 000. The buildings
measure 46x22 feet, or if the balconies are included
46x38. The plans exhibited by J. F. Cropsey,
architect and artist, are especially intended for the
intersection
of Fourteenth street and Sixth avenue, covering
almost the entire available space at the point designated,
but they are modified somewhat to suit the various
localities. They exhibit a central section, wing
pavilions to the right and left, and a train platform in
front extending 126 feet. At all the principal points
of travel the buildings are double, to accommodate both
tracks, namely, Rector street, Park Place, Chambers
street, West Broadway, Franklin, Grand, and Bleecker
streets, Jefferson Market, Fourteenth, Twenty-third
Thirty-third, Forty-second, Fiftieth, and Fifty-seventh
streets. The ascent is made by a flight of 30 steps,
covered by pavilion roofs, so arranged that persons can
step from a carriage upon a stone platform beneath the
shelter of the building. The style is spoken of as the
modernized Gothic, the light iron balcony in front being
a distinguishing feature, and ornamental work being freely
used on all prominent points. Internally the
finish will be in light and dark woods, and the two
waiting rooms will have ceilings about 15 feet in height,
beneath timbered roofs; altogether, the architectural
effect is good, but will hardly silence those who protest
against the "disfigurement."

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 10, Issue 5,
May 1878

The Second Avenue Railroad of New York
city, has one of the Pneumatic Tramway Engine Company's cars. Upon each
platform is a steel lever, by means of which the car can be started, stopped
or its direction reversed. The car is of the same general model as that of
ordinary street cars. It has six tubular air receivers situated under the
floor of the car. The air is compressed by an engine which is standing at
the side of the depot, and is introduced by a rubber hose into these
receivers. That air passes through an engine situated between the axles, and
propels the car.

The car lately ran from 63d to 95th street and back in about 20 minutes,
with two or three stoppages. It is claimed for the car thus inspected that
it can be stopped more readily than the horse cars, and that its rate of
speed can be increased to 30 miles per hour, while it can make 9 miles per
hour and still not appear to go faster than the horse cars. The car which
was run is only a model, and it takes about four hours to charge its
receivers with air, but machinery has been ordered which will perform the
work in less than a minute.

One of these air engines, it is said, can easily draw a whole train of
ordinary street cars. A company composed of 25 capitalists has been formed
to manufacture cars upon the above model. It has already received an order
for five from the Second Avenue Company. These will be used on the upper
part of the Second Avenue route.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 10, Issue 8,
August 1878

The complaints of the occupants of residences and stores along Sixth
avenue against the noise produced by the trains moving along the Elevated
Railroad, remind us very forcibly of the complaints of the inhabitants of a
growing town when the main thoroughfare was paved for the first time. Not
accustomed to the noise made by horses and vehicles on cobble-stones and
remembering their noiselessness when moving on dusty country roads, they
declared paved streets
a nuisance, as they could not hear their conversation while a wagon was
passing. The fact is, that if one walks down West Broadway during the busy
hours of the day, when wagons are passing and re-passing by the hundred,
their noise is so great as almost to drown that produced by the trains
passing overhead; but the residents there are accustomed to it, and consider
it a necessary evil to which they have to submit for the sake of the public
good.

In the meantime, it cannot be denied that the trains on the Metropolitan
Elevated Railroad in Sixth avenue are much more noisy than is necessary --
far more so than the trains on the New York Elevated Railroad on Ninth
avenue. The cause of this is twofold; in the first place it was constructed
with great dispatch, and many parts in contact were found to he loose and
rattling; in the second place, the design is very defective so far as
regards the judicious distrihution of material -- there is too much of this
altogether, except in the columns supporting the upper structure. The design
of the latter we consider, in this respect, so defective as to he no credit
to Dr. Gilbert, its projector, no matter what his friends may think of it.
It has a double disadvantage; first, that of greater cost and waste of
material; second, by creating a large mass of vibrating body, which
increases the sonorous vihration of a passing train, as the sounding-board
of a piano increases the sonorous vibration of a string. It is well known
that the same string, when placed on an old-fashioned small piano, will not
produce one-tenth of the volume of sound it is capable of when placed on a
modern grand piano.

In order to illustrate this principle more forcibly, let us imagine that
a sheet-iron floor was placed under the sleepers over the whole extent of
the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad; there is no doubt that in that case the
vibration of all that sheet-iron, started by every passing train, and
propagated up and down the road, would increase the noise produced by every
train to that of loud thunder -- so loud that it would drown the noise of
the most noisy wagons, which is not the
case now. Any one can satisfy himself of the fact that this mass of iron
increases the noise, by watching the trains passing through Amity, Third,
and Murray streets. In these streets the compound cross-beams supporting the
track are not constructed on the truss principle, as is the case on other
parts of the road, but are made of iron plates, set on edge, and the result
is more noise in those streets than in other parts of the road.

Next we call attention to the design of that part of the New York
Elevated Railroad which runs through Third avenue. It is most admirable; the
heavy crossbeams are entirely dispensed with, as the trusses supporting the
tracks stand on the columns directly, while the two tracks are connected in
order to aid in securing their position, which were made very light, as they
have absolutely no weight to carry. This gives the Third avenue section a
graceful appearance, which compares very favoiably with the clumsiness of
the Sixth avenue railroad, while at the same time it is equally strong, and
we prophecy that this Third avenue section, when in operation, will give
less reason for complaint than any other. In fact, this was partially proved
when the first trip was made recently over the road. An engine and one car
from the old section of the road running through Greenwich street and Ninth
avenue was placed on the track, and a trip made from Whitehall to
Fifty-ninth street, the entire length of the road. The noise made by the
train was so slight as to be scarcely perceptible amidst the racket from the
numerous cars and general traffic constantly moving along the Bowery and
Third avenue. After the new cars have been running awhile and the track
becomes thoroughly settled, the noise will be materially lessened, and we
think will not he easily distinguishable amidst the general uproar.

Various attempts are now being made by the directors of the Metropolitan
Elevated Railroad to diminish the noise, and these attempts will no doubt be
successful to some small extent. Some of the experiments are simply absurd
-- such as hanging beneath the cars a kinnd of drapery of flannel, covering
all the wheels and nearly touching the track. This was based on two
erroneous theories; one that the noise made by the wheels was propagated
only through the air; and, second, that a flannel drapery would intercept a
strong sound. But the rolling of the wheels vibrates the track and the whole
structure on which it rests, and it is this large vibrating surface which
sets the surrounding air in vibration. Hence there is no hope of making the
trains on the elevated road less noisy than steam trains on a surface road;
while running at a moderate velocity the noise is moderate, but as soon as
the velocity is increased the noise becomes greater, and this at an
increasing ratio, perhaps governed by the law of the squares of cubes of the
velocities. That which at a slow velocity is an almost noiseless rolling,
becomes at high velocities a rapid hammering of the wheels on the rails, and
so long as iron upon iron or steel is used, it will always be very noisy.
The only remedy would be to use wooden rails, or rubber wheels, or covering
them with some equivalent substance; but this is hardly practicable on
account of the enormous wear and tear to which they are subject.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 11, Issue 5,
May 1879

The old proverb, that "necessity is the mother of invention," has again
been verified in the recent improvements made and now being introduced in
the locomotives of the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad, with the purpose of
abating the noise, against which there has been so much complaint.

It appears that most all the inventors who have exercised their genius in
this direction, have confined themselves to attempts to deaden the rumbling
noise made by the wheels, while in fact this was only one of the nuisances,
and not the worst. The fitful, irregular puffing and snorting of the exhaust
steam, especially strong when the train is starting from a station, and the
loud hissing noise which accompanies every application of the brakes, as
well as the noise made by the escaping steam when the safety valve is
suddenly opened, are nuisances which, by those living near the stations, are
declared to be far more disagreeable. After a close investigation and
experiments for several months, it has been ascertained that there exists an
English patent which appears to overcome some of these annoyances.

The Metropolitan Elevated Railroad has recently purchased the right of
using this patent. The hissing noise is caused by the sudden escape of steam
from the brake ejector when the engineer applies the brakes to stop the
train. Hitherto the difficulty has been to apply a deadener to the top of
the escape pipe which would effectually stop the noise, and at the same
time permit the steam to escape freely. The improvement consists of a
cylindrical chamber, with wire gratings at each end, the cylinder being
filled with small glass beads about an eighth of an inch in diameter, and a
hole in the center. Little wooden blocks had been tried as deadeners in the
place of these beads, and it was found that the constant action of the steam
made tine wood pulpy and destroyed its efficiency. The beads, howver, being
very hard, are not affected by the steam, and being very small the steam, in
passing around and through them, is subdivided into such small parts as to
utterly break its power for producing noise, which it must produce when it
comes out with a rush under a pressure of 120 pouuds to the square inch.
The top of the cylinders above the roof of the cab, so that the steam, after
passing through the beads, filters out into the atmosphere. According to a
careful count, the number of beads required for each cylinder is about
seventy-five thousand. It is feared that the company has got up a perfect
"corner" in beads, as the number already purchased is about eight hundred
thousand. Several millions more will be required to apply the improvement
to all the engines.

The noise of the safety valves only occurs when the steam attains such a
high pressure that it is necessary to allow it to escape to prevent the
boiler from exploding. The valves automatically give an exit to the surplus
steam, and this is also conducted through a pipe to the glass bead deadener,
and must filter through the tiny spaces left by the glass beads and the
holes in their center; in this way the noise is almost completely overcome.

In regard to the puffing of the exhaust steam, Mr. Baird, the Chief
Engineer of the road, and Mr. Allen Stirling, have patented an improvement
in the chimney of the locomotive which completely does away with puffing and
snorting. It consists of an expansion chamber and an annular nozzle placed
in the chimney, the effect of which is to produce a regular noiseless
exhaust instead of an intermittent and sonorous one. The steam from the
cylinders, instead of passing directly through the nozzles, is discharged
into a chamber which is about ten times the capacity of the cylinder. Thus
allows the steam to expand in volume, and vastly reduces its pressure; after
expanding, the steam passes through the annular nozzle, which produces a
much better draught than those hitherto used on locomotives. This nozzle
encircles the smoke pipe in a way similar to that of an ordinary ejector;
instead of having great volumes of steam escaping suddenly and
intermittently, and with much noise, there is a continuous issue; the noise
is so reduced that the puffing, if it may be called so any longer, cannot
be heard a distance of over ten feet.

In addition to the great reduction of the noise, this improvement
materially increases the working power of the engine, relieving the pistons
from all back pressure. Engineers all agree that this is quite a novel
feature in locomotive engineering. The steam being exhausted from the
cylinders through a 5-inch pipe into so large a receiving chamber the
immediate effect is to do away with much of the back pressure against the
piston, thus allowing the engine to work with better power and produce more
revolutions of the wheel with precisely the same pressure of steam. It is
expected that it will enable the company to increase their speed at least 20
per cent. The engineer of engine No. 13, which is fitted with this
improvement, declares that he can made (make - JT) the run (allowing
the same time for stops) in 18 minutes instead of 20, which is the present
running time from Rector street to Central Park.

An additional advantage is, as might be expected, a saving in fuel
amounting to about 25 per cent. The coal remains in the same position in
which it has been placed by the fireman, and is not jerked from the back to
the front of the furnace by the violent pulsations of these blasts of steam;
in most of the old engines, although the firemen place the coal at the back
of the furnace, yet when the engine reaches the other terminus the coal is
at the front, choking up the flues and interfering materially with the
regular combustion of the coal. The fireman is then compelled to pull it
back again, and this process has to be repeated at every terminus, causing a
waste of fuel as well as frequent loss of time. In the improved engines this
difficulty is entirely overcome, as the mild and uniform current of steam
causes a steady, gentle draught, and so permits the coal to remain without
disturbance where it was placed, so that it burns away like the coal in a
stove, makes no clinkers, and the fires need be cleaned only once in 24
hours instead of four or five times a day.

One of the most important incidental advantages is that this arrangement
does away with the ejection of sparks. The effect of the violent blasts of
steam in ordinary locomotives is to stir up the fires, draw the smallest
particles of coal through the flues, and eject, in the shape of
infinitesimal sparks, through the chimney. In the improved engines the
exhaust steam passes out in such a gentle and uniform steam that the fire is
never stirred and the smallest particles remain on it without being drawn
into the flues.

The improvements above mentioned are now being applied to the engines in
succession, and the difference is evident to anyone; those known as Nos. 4,
5, 6, 7, 8 and 37 have become noiseless, and form a strong contrast with the
others, which puff and snort as usual.

In regard to deadening the noise, the loudest being half way between
stations, and made by the rolling of the wheels and vibration of the
structure when the trains have attained a certain velocity, there is a
patented invention of a Mrs. Walton, consisting of a soft, elastic support
under the rails; but it turns out that there are now eleven claimants to the
priority of this invention, and under these circumstances the companies'
action in accepting it has been delayed until it is settled who is entitled
to the priority. This appears to constitute a case where the patent laws
retard the introduction of an invention. It may be said that the companies
might as well introduce it and afterward pay the one who proves his title;
but it must be remembered that the companies would then be at the mercy of
that one, and nobody will accept anything before knowing what will have to
be paid for it.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 11, Issue 11,
November 1879

The Third avenue horse railroad has now in operation one small
locomotive, which is used instead of a span of horses to propel one of
their ordinary cars. The machinery is partially on the front platform
and partially below the bottom of the car and under the side seats, which
will accommodate about half the number of passengers that the car will
hold. The propelling power is compressed air, which is stored up at the
depot up-town by a stationary engine, and tapped by the car from its
reservoir at every trip, the capacity of the reservoir in the car being
sufficient to contain compressed air enough for a down and up trip.

It appears to give satisfaction so far, and if this continues, it will
afford great relief to the horses, which, when used on street cars, suffer
much from the continual stopping and starting connected with this mode of
travel. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will, we
hope, encourage this new enterprise.